The 126th thing must rot first, and then the worm will grow

Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms is a for-profit game.

Where it is a privilege, there is definitely a fee.

If players want to experience the King's privileges, they must exchange them for real-life RMB.

In the setting of the "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms" operation team, a normal player has an average investment of 3.6 million yuan to hope to usurp the throne. Moreover, although the threshold will continue to be lowered over time, and in another year or two or even ceasing operation, the lower limit of the king's privilege will also be locked at 1 million yuan. The operations team does not force or urge the leaders of each faction to usurp the throne, and if there are no players usurping the throne on the entire server, the NPC king will continue to maintain the order of the game step by step.

After the update of "Tian Dynasty Qi", the usurpation of the dynasty suddenly became the hottest keyword on the Internet.

As of the end of January, a total of 26 players on the whole server of "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms" have become the king. These 26 players alone brought 93.6 million yuan in sales to the Spring and Autumn Network, making the monthly sales of "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms" swell to 280.75 million in January 2005, becoming the first online game in the history of China to break through the monthly sales of 200 million.

Looking down at the Chinese online game market, there is only one with monthly sales of 200 million, that is, "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms"; With monthly sales of 100 million, there is still only one, and it is still "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms". While other online games are still struggling for monthly sales of over 100 million, the record of "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms" has been infinitely close to 300 million.

The most money-making game in history, "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms" is well deserved.

At the same time, various companies have announced their annual financial reports one after another, and the pattern of Huaguo's online game market is becoming clearer and clearer. Looking back on 2003, statistics show that the total revenue of Huaguo's online game market in 2004 was 3.912 billion yuan.

NetEase ranked third, with a total annual revenue of 472 million yuan in the online game business, accounting for 12.06% of the online game market in China. The reason why NetEase was able to sprint to the top three mainly relied on the two works of "Journey to the West 2" and "Fantasy Journey to the West". NetEase's financial results for the fourth quarter of 2004 show that the average number of online users of "Westward Journey 2" is about 143,000, followed by "Fantasy Westward Journey" with an average of 131,000 online users.

Shanda ranked second, with a total annual revenue of 1.021 billion yuan in the online game business, accounting for 26.1% of the online game market in China. Its pillar games are "Legend of Blood", "Legend World", "Bubble Hall" and so on.

The number one is undoubtedly the Spring and Autumn Network.

On September 18, 2004, the public beta "The Road to Survival" had an annual revenue of 79.858 million yuan, and the "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms", known as the pillar of the Spring and Autumn Period, had an annual revenue of 1.912 billion yuan.

1.912 billion yuan!

The revenue of a "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms" exceeds the total revenue of NetEase and Shanda.

After superimposing "The Road to Survival", Spring and Autumn Network's annual revenue was 1.992 billion, accounting for 50.92% of the online game market in China. The market share accounts for more than half, which means that Spring and Autumn Network can single-handedly compete with the entire Huaguo online game circle.

In 2003, the total annual revenue of Huaguo's online game market was 1.722 billion yuan, and the total annual revenue of the online game market in 2004 was 3.912 billion yuan, an increase of 127.18%. With a growth rate of 89.23% last year and a growth rate of 127.18% this year, the ultra-high growth rate of Huaguo's online game industry has attracted countless envious red eyes. Don't worry about scolding online games as electronic crows or something, countless companies have piled up to cross the border to rush into the online game market.

At the same time, the winner-take-all feature of the online game industry has also attracted attention.

The top three in terms of market share, the first in Spring and Autumn, about 50.92%; Shanda second, about 26.1%; NetEase was the third, about 12.06%, with a total of 89.08%.

In addition to the three companies, dozens of nearly 100 games share the remaining 11% share, and the situation can be imagined.

Especially last year's majestic Ninth City and Guangtong Communications, the ninth city's "Miracle MU" has fallen into a quagmire, and it has never been able to find a replacement after being squeezed out of the "World of Warcraft" agency by the Spring and Autumn Network, and the status of the ninth city has declined rapidly; Guangtong Communication's "Legend 3", under the oppression of "Legend of Blood" and "Legend World", is declining day by day, and it is said that it is not broken or changed to "Legend 3G" to try to break the game, but it is frustrated to find that the game has not been broken, and the only reputation of "Legend 3" has been smashed.

The more the market is winner-takes-all, the more the winner is valued.

Spring and Autumn Network, the new leader of Shanda, is not only the new champion of 2004, but also its absolute income is worth looking forward to. The annual revenue in 2003 was 468 million yuan, and the annual revenue in 2004 was 1.992 billion yuan, an increase of 325.64% Moreover, the second online game "The Road to Survival" operated by the Spring and Autumn Network had monthly sales of 19.152 million yuan in October 2004, 23.548 million yuan in November, 30.851 million yuan in December, and 39.045 million yuan in January 2005.

At the same time, Chunqiu Software delivered "Dance Forest Meng Master" operated by Chunteng Games, which was publicly tested in June 2004, with a revenue of 145 million in half a year. If it weren't for the limited time, Chunteng Games would even have the potential to threaten NetEase's unstable Huaguo third.

From "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms" to "The Master of the Dancing Forest", and then to "The Road to Survival", the three works of Spring and Autumn Software may be criticized and controversial in the player group, but they are undoubtedly high-quality products in the eyes of manufacturers and fragrant sweets in the eyes of capital.

The flowers bloom in spring and autumn, as if the four seasons are like spring in the sun; Tencent's side is miserable and miserable, like a trembling bird in the cold winter. By the end of January 2005, the popularity of QQ Hall was sluggish, and the number of online users hovered below 10,000 for a long time.

Such an achievement has brought heavy pressure to Ma Huateng.

Online games are an indispensable tool for attracting money. Taking NetEase as an example, NetEase's total revenue in 2004 was 786 million, of which online game business accounted for 59.9%. Looking at this ratio, the outside world jokingly calls NetEase an online game company, and it really hasn't wronged it. It's a pity that Tencent saw online games, but it didn't have enough R&D capabilities and execution capabilities.

Actually, it's not just Tencent.

For example, a group of portals, in addition to NetEase, Sina, Sohu, and TOM's online game businesses are also half-dead.

The threshold for online games is not high, but it is not something that anyone can enter if they want to.

In late 2004 and early 2005, Tencent faced a serious crisis.

Tencent's performance in the fourth quarter of 2004 showed a total revenue of 314 million yuan, of which 168 million yuan was revenue from mobile and telecom value-added services, accounting for a very high proportion. Mobile and telecom value-added service revenue is Tencent's core business, and it is precisely this most fundamental business that has now provoked the joint sniping of Huaguo Mobile and Huaguo Telecom. In the third quarter of 2004, Tencent's mobile and telecom value-added service revenue was 173 million yuan, but in this era of rapid Internet development, the revenue in the fourth quarter did not rise but fell.

To make matters worse, there is no hope of improvement in the short term, and the first quarter of 2005 is expected to see a further decline in mobile and telecom value-added service turnover. It is precisely in order to get rid of Tencent's dependence on mobile and telecom value-added services that Tencent is desperately looking for new growth points.

Online games are a very important direction.

It's a pity that "QQ Tang" failed.

Tencent was not willing to give up and decided to take the risk of launching another online game.

The QQ game lobby project and the "QQ Hall" project are both flank attacks that bypass the main battlefield. If you want to develop online games and make money with online games, you have to develop large-scale online games. At the same time as the launch of the "QQ Tang" project, Tencent also deeply borrowed from the hottest "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms" in China and "World of Warcraft", which has already launched beta testing in the United States and South Korea, and secretly established the "QQ Fantasy Country".

In terms of normal progress, "QQ Fantasy Country" will not be available for internal testing until March 2005.

However, Ma Huateng couldn't wait.

Because, Tencent's founding team has disputes, disagreements, and rifts.

Tencent's core founder team includes five people, including Ma Huateng, Zhang Zhidong, Zeng Liqing, Chen Yidan, and Xu Chenye.

Among them, Zeng Liqing was in charge of the mobile and telecom value-added services, and the mobile and telecom value-added services were frustrated, and Zeng Liqing's prestige was weakened. The company is everyone's company, if you have the ability to win-win, everyone will definitely support you; If you lead everyone to lose money, hehe, if you don't want to hurt the peace, you might as well abdicate and let Xian go. Zeng Liqing may be able to argue that Huaguo Mobile and Huaguo Telecom are unreasonable, but since you are responsible for liaising with Huaguo Mobile and Huaguo Telecom, it is one of your businesses to handle the relationship with them. If you can't handle the relationship with Huaguo Mobile and Huaguo Telecom, you should step down and let the talents who have the ability to handle the relationship between Tencent and Huaguo Mobile and Huaguo Telecom take the position.

Zeng Liqing's ability has been questioned by Tencent's management.

If he can't find a way out within a certain period of time, Zeng Liqing must relinquish his authority.

Tencent's carriage cannot accompany Zeng Liqing to collapse.

Ma Huateng is now facing a similar crisis.

Tencent's rebuilding of the game division was due to Ma Huateng's insistence, and Ma Huateng insisted that Tencent should have its own online games.

Ma Huateng insisted on Tencent's independent research and development or in-depth reference to develop new games, and made friends with Shanda and Chunqiu at one time. Tencent doesn't care about Shanda's antipathy, Ma Huateng and Tencent have long become the public enemies of the Internet industry. Tencent, led by Ma Huateng, is like a greedy reborn, this also wants to do, that also wants to do, Google, Yahoo, Ebay, MSN's business, Tencent wants to do. If Ma Huateng was afraid of the bad feelings of other companies, Tencent would not have become what it is today.

It's a pity that the Spring and Autumn Festival is not a grand one, and the grand can't help Tencent, but the Spring and Autumn Festival can contain Tencent. Spring and Autumn deliberately depressed Tencent's stock price by selling stocks and creating bad news, copied Tencent's back road through the four-dimensional space of the Chinese version of Facebook, and deliberately recommended to users the relevant reports that Shanda sued Tencent for plagiarizing "Bubble Tang" by "QQ Tang", so that every potential player can pay attention to this news in time when searching and downloading "QQ Tang" and "Bubble Tang".

Ma Huateng's persistence may be the right persistence.

It's a pity that Ma Huateng forgot how thick his arms were.

Ma Huateng's persistence angered Chunqiu, and then was hit by a series of combination punches from Chunqiu. After the bad relationship between Tencent and the Spring and Autumn Period, the stock price has been depressed for a long time, and the employees who hold Tencent shares are short of money and reluctant to cash out cheaply. How good the development of Chunteng game is, QQ game hall has refreshed the record of 1 million simultaneous online, and "Dancing Forest Meng Master" has accumulated 145 million yuan in revenue in half a year. If Ma Huateng's blind dick hadn't made trouble, Tencent's stock price would have broken through HK$10 long ago.